1. Dark,dim,obscure,gloomy,murky refer to absence or insufficiency of light. Dark implies a more or less complete absence of light: a dark night.Dim implies faintness of light or indistinctness of form (resulting from the lack of light or from imperfect vision): a dim outline.Obscure implies dimness that may arise also from factors that interfere with light or vision: obscure because of haze.Gloomy means cloudy, ill-lighted, dusky: a gloomy hall.Murky implies a thick or misty darkness: murky water.4. dusky, black. 12. recondite, abstruse.

dark

adj.

Old English deorc "dark, obscure, gloomy; sad, cheerless; sinister, wicked," from Proto-Germanic *derkaz (cf. Old High German tarchanjan "to hide, conceal"). "Absence of light" especially at night is the original meaning. Application to colors is 16c. Theater slang for "closed" is from 1916.

n.

early 13c., from dark (adj.). Figurative in the dark "ignorant" first recorded 1670s.